Once more unto the breach for Super Suzie

White Ferns greats Suzie Bates (left) and her great friend Sophie Devine show off their special kit after being honoured by the ICC for playing 350 and 300 games respectively before a game at the Cricket World Cup in India last year. PHOTO: ICC/GETTY

As a youngster, Bates enjoyed nothing more than playing backyard cricket with her brothers. PHOTO: SUPPLIED

As a 16-year-old Otago Girls’ High School student, Bates had both basketball and cricket on her mind. PHOTO: PETER MCINTOSH

Bates trains in her makeshift gym at her home in Fairfield during the Covid-19 pandemic in April, 2020. PHOTO: SUPPLIED

Bates during a T20 match between the White Ferns and Pakistan at the University Oval in Dunedin in 2023. PHOTO: PETER MCINTOSH

The end is near. Otago and New Zealand cricket great Suzie Bates will play her final game for the White Ferns at the T20 World Cup. Cricket writer Adrian Seconi helps her reflect on a marvellous career.

Suzie Bates is hoping to sign off her international career with another goofy dance.

The 38-year-old Otago right-hander will retire from international cricket at the end of the T20 World Cup in England and Wales, which gets under way in mid-June.

It will bring to a end a much-celebrated 20-year career and usher in a new era for the White Ferns.

It was not an easy decision for the New Zealand great.

‘‘I’ve never not loved it. I’ve never not loved the training. I’ve never not loved the touring and the competing,’’ Bates told the Otago Daily Times yesterday.

‘‘People like to say, ‘when you know, you know’. But I was like, I don’t think I’m ever going to know. I’d stay forever if I could.

‘‘But I think once I got injured and had that time to sort of sit back and think about it, I got to that point in my mind where it was more about just deciding how I was going to do it.’’

Suzie Bates poses for her official portrait before the ICC Women's T20 World Cup South Africa 2023. PHOTO: ICC VIA GETTY IMAGES

Bates wanted to announce her retirement while she still had some cricket ahead.

The White Ferns have a T20 World Cup to defend and the excitement around that is taking some of the sting out of retirement.

‘‘I know it’s easy now because I’ve got cricket coming up and it won’t be probably until that last match, hopefully in the final at the World Cup and sitting in the changing room after that I’ll probably realise, yeah, what that means.’’

It will be, well, weird.

Bates has been an influential member of the White Ferns since making her debut as an 18-year-old in March 2006.

She debuted the same month her great friend and cricketing ally Sophie Devine made her first appearance on the international stage.

The pair went on to anchor the White Ferns for two decades. Bates, who is in a relationship with sports broadcaster Scotty Stevenson and lives in Auckland these days, captained the White Ferns in 151 matches (79 ODIs, 72 T20s).

She enjoyed enormous personal success during that time.

You will find her name at the top of some significant world lists.

She is the leading scorer in T20 internationals (4717 runs) and the fourth-leading scorer in ODIs (5964).

Bates has taken more catches in both formats than anyone else (93 in ODIs and 96 in T20s).

Only two players have scored more ODI centuries. Bates has notched 13.

Her ODI career is the third-longest in the women’s game (20 years, 32 days), and her 181 T20 internationals puts her second on the list behind India’s Harmanpreet Kaur (193).

Wisden named her women’s cricketer of the year in 2015.

She was also named player of the tournament at the 2013 Women’s Cricket World Cup.

Bates was at the very top of her game and rewriting the way women’s cricket was played with her aggressive approach at the top of the innings.

But time catches up with even the best players. She had a disappointing campaign at the ODI World Cup last year and she missed the domestic season this summer due to a quad tear.

She was forced to press pause for four months. That gave her the space to think about how she would like to bow out.

‘‘I think probably since the last T20 World Cup, I kind of felt like I had to sit down and see what there was left to achieve.

‘‘And that included a 50-over World Cup, which didn’t quite go to plan. And then I guess in that injury layoff, where I had kind of had months out of the game, I had a bit of time to just sit back and reflect.

‘‘I knew I wanted to make a push for selection for this 20-over World Cup and ... it just sort of made sense for me in terms of one last push and just going out on my own terms.’’

Her retirement does not include giving up on playing for the Otago Sparks again. She has put off a decision on whether she will return at the provincial level.

But whatever happens, Bates will stay involved in the game.

She has been appointed batting coach for the Sunrisers Leeds in The Hundred, which starts in July following the T20 World Cup.

Whether she pursues that path further remains to be seen. But moving on from the White Ferns will leave a big gap.

‘‘I think that’s the hardest part. You know you’re going to miss it, and you know it’s going to be a huge gap and it’s impossible to replace.

‘‘But you also don’t know how you feel without it because I’ve had it as part of my life for 20-plus years.

‘‘Every day you wake up, you’ve got that purpose of training and goals and you know you get up and you’re trying to be a better athlete.

‘‘And that’s been my last 20 years. That’s how I’ve functioned as a human being.

‘‘Sometimes that’s a stressful feeling, like you always have to do more. So there’s part of me that’s excited about that.

‘‘I don’t think I’ll ever be without cricket. But I’ve put some plans in place, but there are still so many unknowns which I’ve just got to lean into.’’

There have been many career highlights. She has met and made so many wonderful friends through the game.

Otago duo Katey Martin and Sarah Tsukigawa had an early influence on her career and she counts them among her close friends. She has taken holidays with former White Ferns team-mate Sara McGlashan and has played alongside Lea Tahuhu and Devine for so long.

The trio have experienced the ups and downs of international cricket together - bonds which cannot be broken.

But on the field, the highlight was winning the T20 World Cup in 2024.

Claiming a world title was something ‘‘I’ve been striving for all my career’’.

‘‘So that moment on the field when we bowled that final ball and I looked at Sophie and we’d finally realised we’d achieved what we set out to. That is one moment that I’ll never forget and just that whole night in the changing room.

‘‘I’m pretty happy after just a regular win. So after a win like that, it was a really special night.’’

A clip of Bates performing a quirky dance as the team left the changing rooms following the final went viral.

It summed up how Bates has approached her international cricket career - with great enthusiasm, passion and joy.

Encore, please.

adrian.seconi@odt.co.nz